The IDF has confirmed it killed a suspect in the murder of Tzeela Gez, a 30-year-old pregnant Israeli woman shot dead last week while travelling to give birth.
Gez, from the West Bank community of Bruchin, was critically wounded when gunmen opened fire on her vehicle. Her husband, Hananel, who was driving, sustained light injuries. Doctors delivered her son via emergency caesarean before she later died of her wounds in hospital.
On Monday, the IDF said a man suspected of involvement in the shooting was killed during a counter-terror operation in the West Bank.
During the arrest of several suspects, one man was “identified running toward the forces while holding a backpack suspected of being booby-trapped,” a spokesperson said. “In response to the immediate threat, the soldiers eliminated the suspect.”
The infant remains in serious condition at Schneider Children’s Medical Centre in Petah Tikva.
President Isaac Herzog called the killing “a criminal act of terror that chills every heart.”
But the tragedy also sparked political controversy. At Gez’s funeral last week, her sister Shaked interrupted Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan as he used his eulogy to call for tougher measures against Palestinian villages. “I don’t want politics,” she said. “I want love for my sister.”
The attack has reignited debate over settler security and the Israeli military’s strategy in the West Bank, where violence has surged since the 7 October massacre.
